Read a Character from a Play Out Loud

Read plays, read plays, read plays. I said it before in regard to styles, now I'm saying it in regard to improvised characters and scenes. What better place to learn about scene construction and character attributes? Now, not only read a play, but also read a character out loud. Don't worry about how well you are doing with the acting, just read it. Notice, as you are reading, how the point of view of the character (or in acting terms the superobjective, or want) heightens and flourishes and is unwavering. The playwright does this on purpose. In improv, as I have said thirty times, you must create the point of view yourself.

Purpose

I can't tell you enough how valuable reading plays is. (Have I told you enough?) People ask all the time, "How can I get an edge in improvisation?"

Well, right here is the start, because my answer is always, "Acting skills."

That's the edge. That's it—seriously. Professional improvisation companies are quite often not so improvisational, but more sketch. You have to play roles. That's an acting job, first and foremost. I've seen so many good improvisers go bye-bye because they lack acting skills. In addition, if you can think this far ahead, after all the improvisation—the long form, the games, the professional sketch comedy troupe—continued success always comes back to acting. So learn how to do it. Start this afternoon.

 

 Film Dialogue

Turn on your television. Turn off the sound. Find a movie. Improvise the characters' dialogue.

Purpose

This is fun and usually funny. The biggest thing this exercise does for you is force you to keep going. Improvisers often feel as if they've reached that threshold where they can't do or say anything else. In this exercise, you must keep talking as long as the film char­acters talk. At first, you may take only one character's dialogue, but I invite you to work up to improvising all of the characters for a half hour or so. It's hard work. Once again, notice how characters' points of view remain intact and are heightened throughout. After you do a film or two, try sitcoms, the news, cooking shows, and so on. Enjoy.

Next are some miscellaneous extra bonus exercises.

 

Write an Improvised Scene

Sit down at your typewriter, writing desk, or word processor. (Sit down at your computer.) Now, write a two-person scene, but do it in this way:

■ Get a timer and allow yourself five minutes.

■ Never ever ever stop typing. (It is hard and your fingers will be tired at the end of the five minutes.)

■ Do not censor yourself or self-edit or worry at all about punc tuation or spelling. Just keep typing fast.

To go even faster, name your characters A and B. You should hit between three quarters of a page to a page and a half in five minutes, depending on how fast you type.

Do not worry if the scene is bad.

Do not worry if the scene doesn't make sense.

Purpose

This is a writing exercise as much as an improv exercise. If you truly do this without corrections and without stopping, your mind and words will go places that normally wouldn't occur to you. This opens up a different, creative side to your mind that can't emerge if you are measuring what you are doing while you are writing. I really like this exercise because it just gets your ideas out there furiously. You can always go back and apply structure. After some practice, you may amaze yourself with how you can differentiate and heighten two different characters' points of view, at the same time acknowl­edging and heightening what the scene is about. But don't stop typing.

 

Songs

I do this exercise way too much. I think there's something wrong with me.

While at home or strolling down the street, improvise a song. This is quite scary for some people; for me it is a disorder. How do you improvise a song? Seriously, just start singing. As with impro­vising a scene, you will discover the melody and what the song is about all at the same time. Rhyme or not, but over time learn to rhyme. Also, practice not commenting on a bad rhyme. Just keep in it, and don't pause or comment on it. (The reason I say this is that in performance, improvisers often condition themselves to laugh or comment on the evidence that they can't rhyme, as opposed to finding the fun in rhyming well. Unfortunately, they often get laughs, which reinforces the behavior.)

Purpose

If you keep improvising, there is no way in hell you will escape having to improvise a song. You can either maintain the conversation with yourself that you're not a good singer or can't improvise music and be in pain, or you can start learning how to do it well today. (Psst, wanna 'nother edge in improv? Start taking singing classes this afternoon.) This exercise will also help you if you're called on to improvise a poem.

 

Counting to One Hundred

Stand in the middle of a room. Pretend you are a great speaker and that 5,000 people have gathered to hear you speak. Instead of words, though, use numbers. Start counting out loud, pretending that the numbers are a great speech. Take your time and continue until you reach 100. Provide as much variety in the presentation as you can, sometimes asking questions, other times making declarations. Use emotional variety as well. Know that you are coming to the end of the speech around count ninety, and use the last ten counts to pro­vide closure to the speech.

Purpose

This hones general performing skills by allowing you to play with com­mitment, emotion, and variety without the burden of thinking of words to say. It is also a drill in finding the importance in the words you say. This is a basic performing idea often lost in improvisation: the notion of actually having what you or your character says be important.

 

Dance

Turn on some music you like and dance. That's all, dance. And really commit to it. Don't make fun of or comment on the fact you are dancing; as you do when you are asked to dance socially really dance.

Purpose

I can tell a lot about the way improvisers improvise by the way they dance. Sometimes, just by the way they walk. Most improvisers are not in touch with their bodies, especially men. They often believe that improvisation is all about the words and the funny, not about the body or the physical. If you can get to the point where you are comfortable with seriously dancing, you will overcome a lot of the fear and give yourself permission to be a physical being in an improv scene. Today is as good a day as any to really let yourself go and escape the bonds of your perception of your physical self. Dance. Really. You will learn something about yourself. It will also come in handy if you ever get a date.

 

Notes on Good Acting

Choose a good film with good acting, one that you have seen before. Choose a lead actor in the film. Now, watch the film, with only that actor's acting in mind. Take notes on what makes that acting good. Write down what surprises you: the kind of builds the actor creates in his dialogue, why she took that pause, and so on. Do this with two or three films and compare your notes. Look for a pattern in what you believe to be good acting.

Purpose

Studying what people do when they act or improvise well adds more options and tools for an improviser. Everyone likes different things in acting, and academically identifying what those are will help you "own" what you find effective, making those techniques more tangible and applicable. The reason that I suggest watching a film you've already seen is to lessen the chance of getting caught up in the story and increase the chances of looking at the acting with scrutiny.

 

Non-Fiction Summary

Read a piece of nonfiction, a chapter or so. Here are some example topics:

How to wire a three-way switch What is the event horizon of a black hole? How was the safety pin invented? What was the War of 1812 about? How does a water heater work?

Then, as a character, summarize the concept to an imaginary person. As always, don't think ahead, just put the book down and start talking. I hesitate to say, "As a character, teach an imaginary char­acter the subject matter," because teach is such an undeservedly naughty word in improvisation. But I probably mean that.

Purpose

First of all, you're reading about something other than improvisa­tion, which is a great thing. Second, you are improving your refer­ence level and mind. Third, you are learning to incorporate that ref­erence level into your improvisation by weaving it into a character monologue. Fourth, you are learning more about adding specificity to your work, which adds richness and substance and more laughs. Fifth, you are remembering the ideas you read about by putting yourself in the position of describing them out loud.

 

Exercise

Exercise.

Purpose

You don't have to be a bloated, pasty, pale, liquor-soaked viscous jelly blob. Exercise.

Annoyance

Since 1987 I have worked with many people to create what has become a wonderful place called The Annoyance. Here's a bit of history about this theater and production company. On September 10, 1987, 1 sat with a group of friends around a table at an Italian restaurant talking about slasher films. After a while, we got the crazy idea of producing a blood show for Halloween, which was only a short while away. We set our goal for opening October 10, exactly one month ahead to the day.

In the next frantic four weeks, we pulled a show out of thin air. We created skeletal beats for the show—more or less a parody of contemporary gory horror films—learned about stage blood, and created and perfected our effects. Through improvisation, we honed the beats and developed the characters. Borrowing from Alfred Hitchcock, our stage blood consisted of chocolate syrup, water, and red food coloring. Some of the stage effects included a nun getting drilled in the back of the head, a bimbo getting her tongue ripped out, and a policeman having his intestines removed. With a freshly painted white set, Splatter Theatre opened on October 10, 1987. After a chilling original opening song performed by a nightclub singer character, several deaths turning the white set blood red, a real meat puppet intermezzi, and many laughs, Splatter Theater received a standing ovation.

Nobody knew at the time that we were launching The Annoyance Theater. We were just doing a show. As a matter of fact, Annoyance wasn't even our name yet. We called ourselves Metraform. Metra because we were performing a long-form improv show at a theater on the fourth floor of a great music club called The Cabaret Metro, and form because we were performing other various original improv forms at another venue. It wasn't until we formally rented a space in 1989 that we came up with The Annoyance. (Metraform didn't seem like a very compelling name for a subversive comedy theatre, so a few friends and a bottle of tequila yielded The Annoyance as the name of the theatre itself, with Metraform remaining as our company's name.) As The Annoyance became The Annoyance, Metraform went away.

Since then, in five different locations, The Annoyance has cre­ated over 100 shows, comprised of improvisation, sketch, full-length plays, cabaret, and full-length musicals. Hundreds of people have performed in Annoyance shows, and you see many of them today on stage, in films, and on television.

Our flagship show, Coed Prison Sluts, was created from improvi­sation. It ran for eleven years, the longest-running musical in the history of Chicago. Because of the content of Coed Prison Sluts and other shows at The Annoyance, the theater has become known for its subversive language and themes. (Such titles as Manson: The Musical, Tippi: Portrait of a Virgin, and That Darned Antichrist helped fuel this notion.) Shows like these were not so much born from the desire to be radical, as they were a consequence of the invitation to everyone in the ensemble to do whatever they wanted on stage. Our work has always been uncensored. (The only censorship is self-imposed, and the criterion of that censorship is whether or not the content fulfills the mission of the show.) Under the umbrella of the same invitation to freely create on stage came The Real Live Brady Bunch, a re-enactment of Brady Bunch episodes on stage; God in a Box, an exploration of commercialism in America; He Who Says Yes, a tribute to the music of Kurt Weill; and original Christmas, improvisation, and sketch shows. The Annoyance has made its mark mostly from being the first improvisational theater to devote itself to creating full-length plays and musicals from improvisation, but is always open to any type of show. The Annoyance also scored a first in Chicago for committing itself to performing multiple orig­inal shows per week. At one point, we had thirteen different shows running a week.

In 1999, The Annoyance branched into production and formed Annoyance Productions. In that year Annoyance Productions released its first feature film, Fatty Drives the Bus, through Troma Pictures, on video. Currently, The Annoyance strikes a balance between live performance and production, with continuous projects on the slate for both.

Along with the creation of shows, The Annoyance has provided training in improvisation since 1989. As our approach to improvisa­tion has evolved, we have been able to provide a healthy alternative in the study of improvisation. Highly individualized attention has become The Annoyance trademark: Students leave our program with a better sense of themselves on stage and with strong tools to navigate through an improv scene. Although The Annoyance has great respect for long form and games, we focus our training on the scene itself, and the individual people and elements that make up the scene. Like our creations on stage, The Annoyance training program is uncensored and free of traditional improv rules, providing an encouraging environment in which to improvise.

The Annoyance ensemble has changed over the years, but they have and continue to be the funnest, funniest, and finest people I have ever met. Visit us at www.annoyanceproductions.com, or drop by our current location at 4840 N. Broadway, in Chicago. Stop in some­time and have a beer.